1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved system and method for aligning a snack chip and, in particular, to a system and method that transports a snack chip while maintaining a substantially flat formation. The system allows snack chip preforms to be processed while maintaining a substantially flat shape for later processing to form a shaped snack chip
2. Description of Related Art
Snack chips and other food products are frequently made to assume a desired shape. Often, these shapes are merely ornamental in design to assume an interesting shape that appeals to consumers. Sometimes, snack product shapes assume a utilitarian function. One such function is to retain liquid mixtures such as dip, salsa, bean dip, cheese dip, and the like.
When a consumer chooses to eat a chip with dip, the consumer typically holds a single chip and immerses a portion of the chip into the dip. The consumer then transfers the dipped chip to his mouth for eating. Often though, the desired quantity of dip fails to adhere sufficiently to the chip or is lost during the transfer process. This problem is particularly noticeable when the chip is flat or relatively flat. Additionally, round or triangular flat chips are often too large to insert into a jar or fail to retain a sufficient quantity of dip on the chip surface during removal of the chip from the jar. With traditional chips, some are too large to consume in one bite. When this occurs, the dip on the uneaten portion of the chip frequently slides off creating a mess and a dissatisfied consumer.
To help retain dip, snack chips have been made with curved surfaces. Shaped snack chips allow the consumer to scoop up a desired portion of dip without losing a significant quantity during transfer to the mouth for eating. Further, shaped chips are more maneuverable for insertion into ajar or can of packaged dip such as salsa. The utilitarian shapes known include for example ridges, scoops, taco-shaped, spoon-shaped, and bowl-shaped. Of these, a bowl-shaped chip is particularly desirable as it has a retaining wall or edge surrounding the entirety of the chip.
The system and method for making a shaped chip, especially a bowl-shaped chip, is more complex as compared to traditional flat chip manufacturing processes. With traditional chip production, the dough or masa is extruded or sheeted into a desired chip shape. After extrusion, the chips are transported towards and through a toaster. For this, the chips are deposited onto a moving belt. After toasting, the shaped chips have increased stiffness for insertion into a fryer. To convey the chips into the fryer for dehydration, the chips are removed from the toasting belt or conveyor. To do this, a doctor blade is commonly used to lift the chips from the surface of the belt. Upon contact with the doctor blade, the chips are forcefully lifted from the belt and transported onward into the fryer. As such, the chips are often deformed from being relatively flat into a chip have wraps, curls, waves, and other structural deformities. Particularly to tortilla chips, this is not a substantial problem as tortilla chips are typically not molded. For a molded chip however, a uniform preform chip is needed.
An alternative method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,939 to Fink et al. for making a shaped snack chip. A form fryer produces a shaped snack chip by placing chips into a bowl-shaped mold cavity and frying the chip therein. Transport of the preform chips to a fryer is achieved with the use of an airslide. An airslide transports the preform chips via a cushion of air. Although a doctor blade is avoided, expensive equipment is needed to maintain the constant airflow. Further, the spatial orientation of the preform chips is not maintained to a high degree.
Consequently, a system and method for transferring preform snack chips that can operate efficiently, effectively, and inexpensively is desired. Such a system and method should be capable of transferring preform snack chips from a toaster on to additional processing while keeping the costs associated with the chip manufacturing and production within industry standards.
The present invention is an improved system and method for transferring preform snack chips from a toaster on to additional processing for producing a shaped snack product such as bowl-shaped tortilla chips. The invention utilizes a sheeter for forming a sheet of dough (masa) into pieces that is fed to a toaster via a conveyor. The essentially flat shaped pieces, which for example could be hexagonal shaped pieces are fed into one or more high temperature toasting ovens to add rigidity to the chips for the steps to follow. After toasting, the partially dried preform chip is conveyed to a piece alignment system.
For the transfer to the piece alignment system, toasted preform chips are transferred from a toaster belt to a transfer belt of the piece alignment system with the use of the improved system for transferring preform snack chips. This system involves using a toaster discharge roll that has a substantially reduced diameter of about 4 inches as compared to prior art rolls having about 16 to about 18 inch diameter. Adjacent to the discharge roll of the toaster belt, a pickup roll of the transfer belt of the piece alignment system has about a 0.75 inch diameter. Further aiding the transfer, the transfer belt is positioned slightly lower than the toaster belt, about 0.2 to about 0.5 inches. By using a smaller roll at the toaster discharge, the preform chips are transferred without the use of a doctor blade or other mechanical aid. By avoiding the use of a doctor blade, the registration or positioning of the preform chips is essentially maintained. Also, the disadvantages of using a doctor blade, which include mechanical wear, product jamming between the blade and belt, product deformation, and the like, are avoided. The transferred preform chips are then further aligned with a piece alignment system to ensure proper molding of the chips to form shaped snack chips.
Following the transfer from the toaster, the piece alignment system aligns the chips prior to a plunger and mold conveyor system, which provides shape to the chips. The piece alignment system comprises a series of belts whereby the ranks (rows) of chips can be adjusted for proper placement for the plunger and mold conveyor. After the product is plunged in the mold conveyor, the chips pass through at least one oven for reducing chip moisture and providing additional rigidity for frying. Thereafter, the chips are ejected from the molds and are inputted into a fryer where the chips attain their final packaging moisture. Following frying, the chips are passed through an optional salter where salt and/or flavoring is added. The chips are then passed along for packaging for consumers. With the system for transferring preform snack chips, preform snack chips can be transferred efficiently, effectively, and inexpensively. The above as well as additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following written detailed description.